FXCM Closes Out Year Seeing Decline in Retail, Institutional Trading Volumes

FXCM (NYSE:FXCM) has just released its latest volumes and statistics report covering the month of December 2016. After spiking to a recent high, the latest figures suffered from a seasonal lull and lack of definitive market drivers, ultimately losing ground MoM, per an FXCM filing.

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Ultimately, any volumes report in December was going to be a disappointment after November, which shaped up as one of the most volatile trading months of the entire year. A surprise Donald Trump victory helped propel retail volumes, something that was certainly lacking in December. In tandem with a seasonal wane in activity, retail and institutional metrics followed the rest of the industry to a lower MoM reading.

In terms of Retail Trading Retail Trading In finance, retail trading refers to individual traders, trading through a broker, or on a platform. This can include novice traders and experienced traders. Trading and investing are divided into two categories, retail and institutional. Institutions include investment banks like JP Morgan or Citibank and global central banks like the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank. When we talk about retail trading however, we usually are referring to forex trading, but there are retail trade In finance, retail trading refers to individual traders, trading through a broker, or on a platform. This can include novice traders and experienced traders. Trading and investing are divided into two categories, retail and institutional. Institutions include investment banks like JP Morgan or Citibank and global central banks like the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank. When we talk about retail trading however, we usually are referring to forex trading, but there are retail trade Read this Term metrics, during December 2016, FXCM’s monthly volumes came in at $235.0 billion, retreating by a factor of -33.5% MoM from $353.0 billion in November 2016. The figures also more than erased the gain seen in last month’s volumes FXCM, which as mentioned above could not sustain any momentum in a more tranquil market.

Furthermore, retail figures for December 2016 were also lower YoY when compared to 2015, as the latest total retail volumes correlated to a decline of -27.0% YoY from December 2015. FXCM’s average daily volume (ADV) for retail customer trading during December 2016 also suffered a MoM pullback to $11.2 billion, down by -30.4% MoM from $16.1 billion in November 2016, as well as -24.0% YoY against December 2015.

Taken as an entire year, 2016 was also lower overall – retail customer trading volume came in at $3.5 trillion in 2016, down -8.0% YoY than 2015. Finally, FXCM’s retail trades executed an average of 484,611 retail client trades per day in December 2016, registering a -21.0% MoM fall from 613,233 client trades in November 2016.

By extension, FXCM’s tradeable accounts also came in marginally worse during December 2016, reporting 155,353 vs. 155,928 accounts in November 2016, virtually unchanged MoM.

Institutional Volumes Snapshot

Taking a look at FXCM’s institutional customer trading volume, December 2016 yielded a total of $25.0 billion, trending downward by -10.7% MoM from $28.0 billion in November 2016. Despite this fall, FXCM’s institutional business this past month is also -31.0% lower YoY than December 2015, continuing a trend seen throughout H2 2016.

Institutional ADV also reported $1.2 billion during the month ending December 2016, edging higher by -7.8% MoM from $1.3 billion in November 2016. Much like its total volumes, FXCM’s latest institutional ADV was -25.0% lower YoY from December 2015. In terms of 2016, institutional customer trading volume came in at $527 billion, roughly -1.0% lower than 2015.

Finally, FXCM’s institutional trades executed an average of 34,659 client trades per day in December 2016, reflective of a decline of -2.9% MoM from 35,712 client trades per day in November 2016.